Can coacervation unify disparate hypotheses in the origin of cellular life?

By Basusree Ghosh, Rudrarup Bose, T. Tang. 2021

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Abstract Here, we review the recent progress in the characterisation and utilisation of coacervates as protocell models in origin of life studies. We provide evidence that coacervation could have played a unique role during the origin of life based on its ability to form from a range of different prebiotically relevant molecules; partition solutes and maintain the solute’s partition coefficient during enzymatic reactions; support and alter RNA catalysis and readily deform its shape. We discuss how these properties could have been important for the formation of the first membrane bound cells; supporting RNA-peptide evolution and primitive metabolism; and in replicating and proliferating by growth and division processes.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c31e89bc8872ef6bbb095a12144b5d9be284457f